The Pain Of Stains Is On The Wane

Manufacturers Making Rugs More Spillproof

March 29, 1987|By Ron Wolf, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

Imagine the feeling. You pay $30 a square yard for new carpeting in the living room. It looks sensational.

Within a week, dinner guests spill bordeaux on your expensive broadloom, your teenager drenches it with Cherry Coke and the dog throws up in a corner. The aftermath now serves as an indelible reminder of your foolishness and gullibility.

If science can send man to the Moon, you wonder, why, oh why, can`t somebody invent a stainproof carpet?

For all who have suffered the pain of stain, relief is on the way.

The country`s three largest manufacturers of nylon carpet fiber all say they have developed processes for substantially increasing the stain resistance of their products. All three--Du Pont Co., Allied-Signal Corp. and Monsanto Co.--are introducing a new generation of carpet material that they tout as clearly superior to previous formulations.

Several textile specialists familiar with the innovations now hitting the market agree that the chemical companies finally may eradicate one of the annoyances of modern life--the carpet stain.

``This is very definitely an advancement in technology,`` says Kenneth MacIntosh, director of technical services for the Carpet and Rug Institute.

The three manufacturers are undertaking lavish advertising campaigns to convince consumers that the nearly perfect carpet is at hand. In the months ahead, Americans are likely to see and hear more about carpeting than they ever wanted to know.

Anyone who has spent a day shopping for carpet has learned that this seemingly simple product can be infuriatingly complex. Retailers offer carpeting in a vast variety of textures, patterns, grades and styles. Hundreds of different mills produce carpeting that varies in fiber content, dye method and construction.

Though the carpet business may be confusing at the retail level, it is much simpler at the source. Since the 1950s, various forms of nylon have replaced wool as the most common carpet fiber. More than 82 percent of the carpet sold today is made of nylon.

Nearly all carpet mills get their nylon fiber from just five large chemical companies. In addition to the big three, BASF Corp. and 3M Corp. also make the stuff.

Last year, Americans spent more than $10 billion on carpeting at the retail level. To meet this demand, the chemical companies supplied about 2.4 billion pounds of nylon fiber, worth nearly $4 billion.

With so much at stake, each fiber producer competes intensely to convince carpet manufacturers to use his nylon instead of someone else`s. The key to success is persuading carpet makers and their customers that all nylon is not created equal.

The producers charge carpet manufacturers $1.30 to $1.40 a pound for average grades of nylon fiber. The chemical companies get 10 to 30 cents more for premium grades.

Over the years, chemists and engineers for the nylon producers have altered the composition of their material, changed the shape of the fiber, modified its surface properties and applied finishing agents to enhance the appearance and performance of the final product.

This year, the nylon producers are promoting a substantial improvement in stain resistance. Du Pont set the tone for the marketing drive when it announced in September that it had found a way to make its top-of-the-line nylon fiber almost impervious to common food stains.

``This is a quantum improvement,`` says Robert M. Axtell, Du Pont`s business manager for residential carpeting. Du Pont is offering the enhanced fiber to carpet makers and promoting it to consumers under the Stainmaster name.

Stainmaster is neither a product nor a brand nor a process. It is a certification mark controlled by Du Pont. Any carpet mill can use the Stainmaster label on its products by buying its nylon fiber from Du Pont and making its carpet according to Du Pont specifications.

To promote Stainmaster, Du Pont has flooded the airwaves with the most expensive campaign ever undertaken to sell carpeting. Industry analysts estimate that the company will spend $40 million to $50 million pushing Stainmaster this year.

Du Pont`s advertising agency, BBD&O Inc., placed TV spots on 8 of the 10 top-rated programs during the first week of its campaign. The company paid roughly a half million dollars for 30 seconds of airtime during Super Bowl XXI.

Axtell will not comment on the overall price tag. He says, however, that the Stainmaster campaign probably will cost more than such familiar TV fare as the advertising for Michelob beer or the American Express card.

In one heavily used spot, a 2-year-old impishly considers the dinner placed before him in a plastic tray shaped like an airplane. In the background, the viewer hears instructions from a flight controller who clears the plane for takeoff. On cue, the tray and its stain-producing contents fly across the room and hit the white carpet in colorful slow motion.

Of course, the mess is washed away without a trace as an announcer extols the virtues of Stainmaster.